Page 86 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 79
e 1973 season is when Moret’s stardom seemed assured. Starting the season in the bullpen, he earned a win against the Cleveland Indians on April 22. at was the rst of 11 straight wins he reeled o — along with three saves — before nally losing to the Indians on September 16. He had good success against the Yankees on the way to a team-leading winning per- centage of .867 during a 13-2 season. He beat the New Yorkers three times, including a Fourth of July 1-0 shutout at the tail end of a Red Sox doubleheader sweep at Yankee Stadium.
Moret could not follow the success he had enjoyed in 1973, nishing 1974 with a 9-10 record and a 3.74 ERA. In the regular starting rotation during July and August, he amassed a middling 6-5 record with a 3.54 ERA — but that included an 11-inning complete game win over the Yankees on July 29. e highlight of his ‘74 season was a near no-hitter win with 12 strikeouts against the Chicago White Sox on August 21. Dick Allen beat out an in eld single in the seventh inning for the only hit of the game. e win increased Moret’s record at the time to 7-5. But after the near no-no, Moret nished the season on a 2-5 run.
Moret started 1975 in the bullpen picking up ve wins and a save in relief and as a sometime starter before emerging as the fth man in the rotation in late July. In fact, teammate Bill Lee said that the Red Sox really contended for the pennant when Moret entered the rotation. Moret’s performance as a fth starter gave the other starting pitchers extra rest and the Red Sox “started winning left and right,” according to Lee.2
Moret had two stints in the regular, ve-man rotation, inwhichhepitchedadmirably—andoftenbrilliantly. In a stretch of four starts, July 20-July 31, he collected three wins with one loss. One of his wins was again against the Yankees and contributed to their demise as a pennant contender. Moret pitched the second game of a doubleheader shutout sweep against them in their temporary home at Shea Stadium on July 27. e sweep e ectively established the Red Sox as the team to beat in the American League East.
In another period, from August 11 to September 15, Moret got six wins with two losses. In his September 6 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, he bene ted from 20 runs scored on 24 hits by the Red Sox, both American League season highs for the year. His 14-3 record at the end of the season put him atop the American League in winning percentage, at .824.
e low point of Moret’s 1975 season proved to be his strange trip back from New York City on the early morning of a scheduled August start against the Orioles. He crashed his car into the rear end of a stalled truck on the highway. Somehow he avoided serious injury but did su er cuts on his head that required a visit to a hospital.3 X-rays proved negative but the Red Sox would not allow him to pitch. In fact, the team was not pleased with either the incident or the publicity and took Moret to task about his behavior. e incident probably contributed to some doubt in the Red Sox front o ce about whether he could be a reliable member of the sta .
Moret saw little duty during the 1975 postseason, but the little he saw loomed important in the outcomes. He was the winning pitcher in the second game against the Oakland A’s when he pitched one inning of score- less relief in his only appearance during the Red Sox’ three-game series sweep. He came into the game in the sixth inning with the score tied, a man on rst, and no outs. He retired two batters, gave up a double and then induced the nal out on a grounder to short- stop. e Red Sox went ahead in the bottom half, making Moret the pitcher of record.
In the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds, Moret saw a little more action, and again at crucial times. is time, he struggled. He pitched 12⁄3 innings, faced 10 batters, and gave up two hits and three bases on balls with only one strikeout. Unfortunately, for Moret and the Red Sox, in Game ree he surrendered a game-winning hit to Joe Morgan in the 10th inning, which gave the Reds a 2-1 edge in the Series.
In Game Six, after starter Luis Tiant allowed a leado eighth-inning homer to Cesar Geronimo, Moret was brought in from the bullpen and set down the Reds